Amnesia
by Marcy Queen of the Narwhals
Summary: We follow an orphaned girl, taken in by Konoha, as some of the Narutoverse's most notorious villains get minds of their own, and do away with the canon they never knew was there. It started small, and then it spread like a deadly virus. NaruOC (non self insert), some side SasuSaku. Rated T for violence. Definitely AU.
1. Chapter 1

Yo! So this is my first story, but I've been letting this plot stew in my head for close to a year, so hopefully you like this! I apologize if the summary was crap, but basically my OC won't have any memories, and thus no personality... At first. I did that so there is plenty of room for character developement. She will be stronger than her peers at first, but that's part of the story and they catch up/surpass her anyways, so I don't intend for her to be Mary Sue, but I am still making her strong enough to defend herself. This has been revised by myself numerous times and beta read, as will future chapters. I hope you enjoy~!

Disclaimer: Most unfortunately, I do not own Naruto, and never will. Honestly, if I did, why the heck would I write fanfiction for my own story... That's just weird...

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Chapter One.

It was a night like any other in the village of Konoha. The full moon cast its shine down on the peaceful village. Crickets and cicadas sang a duet in the thick, muggy air that implied rain to come. Most were asleep by now, as it was late into the night. Two ANBU guards, Crow and Tiger, stood at the front gates, fighting off the drowsiness that threatened to overcome their tired bodies. A few hours passed like this, and soon ominous thunderheads appeared on the horizon, quickly bearing down on them. In no time at all the clouds were upon them. A flash of lightning and a loud crack of thunder signified the start of the storm and rain came down upon them almost instantaneously. As the storm was hitting them full force, one of the ANBU guards noticed something on the now muddy path to the gate. A dark, shadowy figure walked up to the gate, holding something. Just as the ANBU were about to call out a greeting over the gale, said figure looked up to them. Its face was illuminated by a flash of lightning, showing only a row of smiling, pointed teeth. It set the thing it was holding down and went back the way it came. The ANBU considered getting some reinforcements in case this was an attack on the village, but the creature moved. Another flash of lightning revealed it to be a small person.

"It appears to be a child. Should I check it out?" Crow suggested, shouting above the noise of the gale.

"Yes, but proceed with caution. It could be a trap." Tiger warned.

Crow leapt down from the gate and landed without a sound. He approached the small figure, after listening for a few seconds for unseen observers, to see that it was in terrible condition. The child, now known to Crow to be female, had scratches all over her body that blood was oozing from and staining the ground. Some blood trickled out of her mouth and she groaned. Another flash of lightning illuminated her torn clothes and ratty auburn hair.

"She could die; she needs to get to the hospital." Crow mumbled to himself.

Crow disappeared with the girl in his arms, only to reappear next to Tiger. "She is in severe condition. We need a medic squad now." he reported, with extra emphasis on the 'now'.

"Right away." Tiger nodded and shot off in the direction of the ninja hospital.

About a minute later a squad of medic nins dashed to the scene along with Tiger.

"Is she still alive?" Tiger asked.

"Barely. Get her onto the stretcher fast. She won't last much longer." Crow reported, urging the medical team on.

Quickly they had the half dead girl on the stretcher and were rushing back to the hospital. The head doctor had already been informed of the situation and was prepping a room in the I.C.U. Soon the room was abuzz with activity as the girl was rushed into the room and promptly examined.

"She has minor lacerations all over her body, but the real damage is the excessive internal bleeding. It looks like she was cut with a chakra scalpel, so focus your work on healing her internal injuries." the head medic called out above the clamour.

They rushed to obey her commands, but suddenly the girl's condition began to worsen. She began coughing up more blood; it trickled out the corners of her mouth.

"Her Aorta has ruptured! Come on people we're gonna lose her! I don't care if you're low on chakra, give her all you've got!" the head medic began working even quicker.

While still working, one of the interns piped up, "Hey, is she even from Konoha? Why are we wasting our chakra on her?"

"Because I said so! We will talk after we finish up with her!" the head medic chided back, not caring to chew out the new intern in front of her new colleagues and cause distraction to the others.

They continued to work on the girl all through the night. It seemed after patching up one serious injury, something else critical would fail. Finally after what seemed like hours, she was finally able to leave the I.C.U. and was transferred to the civilian hospital, but was still under close observation unless something else went wrong. A nurse was specifically assigned to her room each shift.

- one week later-

The nameless girl woke suddenly, in an unfamiliar place. Bright lights and stark white wash walls stared back at her as she looked around at her new surroundings. A small, worn down arm chair was occupied by a rather old looking nurse, who was loudly snoring. Panicking, she leapt up from her bed, her I.V. tearing from her arm. Her eyes darted around in search of a door. Seeing one to her left, she dashed toward, running purely on adrenaline. After running a few steps, she collapsed in pain. The pain streamed all through her body, but she got back up and kept going, propelled by an unexplainable fear. Now she could hear the old nurse getting up and shouting at her. She dashed down the hall to find it a dead end, except one door. She yanked the door open and ran in. A row of toilet stalls and sinks greeted her. She approached the nearest sink and looked into the mirror. A thin, pale, girl, with ratty, auburn hair and fierce grey eyes stared back at her. She continued staring into the mirror, fascinated by its unfamiliar reflection. One of her thin hands reached out and lightly touched the mirror. Suddenly she was reminded of the pain, but it came back worse. Grey spots clouded her vision and the room began to spin. A moment later, darkness enveloped her and she fell onto the floor. The old nurse hobbled into the room and sighed. She pulled a walky-talky from her back pocket.

"We have a situation in the second floor, east wing bathroom, runaway patient, passed out on the floor." she paused with the device held up to her ear, waiting for a reply.

"We'll have a stretcher there on the double. What room number was it?" a voice answered.

"Number 209 B." she responded.

"Thank you."

The nurse leaned against the wall and sighed. She looked down to the girl passed out on the floor. Her eyelids began to flutter, followed by her legs and hands twitching. She began to whimper a little, murmuring unintelligibly.

"No. Stop. S-stay away. No!" She gasped in fear. With a final jerk, she leapt up and whipped her head around, as if looking for something. She began backing away from the nurse.

"Stay away from me. Stay-" her words were cut off as she collapsed back onto the floor in agony. "Aaahhhh-" Her face contorted as flashes of white-hot, searing pain shot through her trembling body.

"Shh. It's going to be alright." The nurse hushed comfortingly, slowly approaching her convulsing figure.

She tried to scramble back, barely succeeding.

"No. Stay away." she said in a whisper, gaze upon the aged nurse, waring.

At that time the medical team arrived with a stretcher. The girls eyes widened in fear. She was now backed up against the wall.

"Alright honey, we're going to take you back to your room now. We're not going to hurt you." one of the nurses assured.

"No."

The nurse approached anyway and began to reach her arm out as if to grab her shoulder, but the girl knocked her arm away and instinctively karate chopped her neck, effectively knocking the woman out. The rest of the nurses, thinking they could overwhelm her in numbers, exchanged a few whispers and moved in to try and surround her. She slipped through a gap they made and ran out the door, and straight into a solid figure. She fell on her butt and looked up to see a completely differently dressed person: a man with gravity-defying silver hair and a mask that covered almost his entire face that would have left his eyes visible, if not for a strange, but familiar looking headband covered his left eye. His eye widened in surprise and he held a hand out to help her up, but she gave him a wild stare and backed away into the wall. He rolled his eye and crouched down, reoffering his hand.

"I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Hatake Kakashi. What are you doing out here?" he tried to reassure, his voice only slightly muffled by his mask.

She continued eyeing him skeptically and used the wall to help herself up. This 'Kakashi' person sighed and retracted his hand. Getting up, he spoke out.

"Come on. Let's go back to your room." he turned and motioned for her to follow.

She followed him cautiously at a distance, but she found herself recaptured back in pain and collapsed once again onto the floor. Kakashi turned around and looked at her.

"Need some help?" he offered.

She stared at him skeptically and after a about a minute of observing his carefree demeanor, she determined him as non-threatening and nodded her head. She still flinched a bit, not in pain, but as a knee jerk reaction when he picked her up. He began down the hallway, then paused.

"Which room is it?" he asked.

She pointed to a door that hung ajar, labelled 209. Soon they were back at her room and he set her down on her bed and pressed the nurse's button.

"So what's your name?" he tried to make small talk.

She shrugged.

"You don't know?" he asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.

She nodded her head.

"Do you remember anything? Where you came from, how old you are, who your parents were?" he tried. She shook her head.

"Not even your parents?" he asked again.

She curled her lip up in unknown disgust at the word 'parents' and shook her head again.

"Nothing, but just, a bad feeling." she said, her voice barely a hoarse whisper.

She broke into a fit of coughing.

"Here's some water." Kakashi handed her a nearby glass of water.

She gulped it down greedily like it was the last glass of water on earth; it spilled down the sides of her mouth a bit. She wiped the excess water with her wrist, which she then wiped on the sheets.

"You dress different from the others." she paused for a moment. "And that thing-" she pointed at the headband slung across his left eye. "I've seen it before, but it was different." her voice sounded a bit better, but was still really quiet.

"That's because I'm a ninja. This-" he tapped the forehead protector with his index finger, "is what proves it. All ninjas wear them. Since you say you've seen them before you must have come from a hidden village." he explained, then paused in thought, "Do you remember what symbol you saw before?"

She was silent for a moment and her face scrunched up in thought, "I-I think it was a... a music note." she tried desparately to remember.

Kakashi's brow furrowed unseen. A music note? No such village existed... She must be remembering wrong.

"What's a hidden village?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"It's where each country's military is based. You don't find many ninjas living outside of them. If they do, they're typically mercenaries." he patiently explained.

She nodded. At that time a new nurse came in.

"This one here tried to escape and pulled out her I.V. in the process." Kakashi motioned to the girl, who averted her eyes guiltily.

"Thanks for taking her back, we'll get the I.V. in right now." the nurse walked over and picked the I.V. up off the floor and motioned as though to hold the girl's arm down, but she jerked it away.

"She's not going to hurt you. The I.V. will hurt less than what you feel now, and it probably has pain meds in it." Kakashi, having got up to leave, paused at the door and commented before continuing on his departure.

The girl gingerly put her arm back in its original position and looked away as the nurse put the I.V. back in.

"You should feel the meds kick in in about fifteen minutes." the nurse informed her, "If you need anything just press this button." she held up the help button.

The girl nodded and turned away to stare out the window. It was only now that she noticed it was raining moderately. It was in the newfound silence, that she could hear the drops lightly slapping against the glass window. She continued to stare at it; she had nothing else to do. Her eyelids began to get heavy, and soon she couldn't fight off the slumber. She fell unconscious.

She now found herself running through a dim, torch-lit hallway. All she could hear was the light tapping of her footsteps and her own ragged breathing. She listened closer and could hear another pair of footsteps. She didn't know why she was running, but she kept going. She tried to go faster, but only succeeded in slowing down. She felt sharp pain all over her body and found herself flying into, and through, a wall. Coughing, she tried to pick herself up from the rubble, but something, or someone, kicked her back down. She landed on her face, and tried to get back up again, but a foot planted itself on her back. The last thing she heard was a string of manic laughter. The girl sat straight up, panting and gasping for air. A stray tear left a wet track down the side of her face, and she looked back out the window. It was still raining.

"Oi." a new voice called out.

She whipped her head around to see a squinty blonde kid peeking his head out of a closed curtain that she hadn't paid much attention to earlier; she thought it was empty.

"Who are you?" the blonde kid asked her.

She shrugged.

"How can you not know?" the kid asked her, disbelief shining in his eyes.

She took a moment to observe him. He had spiky, bright yellow hair, blue eyes, and three whisker lines on each cheek, one of which had a somewhat bloody bandage on it.

"Are you going to answer me?" he asked impatiently.

"I don't remember." she replied, her voice hoarse again.

"Wow! I bet someone erased your memory and you're involved in some kind of big conspiracy!" he exclaimed, a little too loud.

She gave him a bewildered look.

"Are you ok? You were muttering in your sleep. Something like 'No, stay away from me'. Were you having a nightmare?" he asked, his eyes boring into her head.

"I'm fine." she said sharply, "What's wrong with your face?" she looked inquisitively at his whiskers.

"This?" he pointed to the bandage.

She shook her head, "Those." she pointed again.

He gave her a confused look. "What are you talking about? My face is perfectly fine!" he pouted.

"You have... whiskers." she pointed.

"Oh, these? I've always had these. I don't know why..." he trailed off and traced his finger along one of them, "I'm Naruto!" he grinned at her.

She nodded and shot another glance out the window.

"You sure look out that window a lot." he commented.

"Does it always rain here?" she asked with a tone of curiosity.

"No. It's been raining the WHOLE week. I can't believe it! I hate when it rains. I can't remember it raining for this long before!" he commented in an exasperated manner and waved his hands in the air.

He had pulled back his curtain and was sitting cross-legged near the edge of his bed. There was silence for a few minutes, until he piped up again.

"How old are you?" he asked, leaning forward on his elbows.

She turned her head to face him and shrugged.

"You don't know much do you." he said, his words more like a statement then a question.

"Not really." she sighed at her own predicament.

"You look like you're my age." he said.

She continued to look at him, as though waiting for him to continue, so he did.

"I'm eight."

She paused for a moment, as though in thought.

"Are you a ninja?" she asked, searching his person for a 'forehead protector'.

He sighed for a moment, then excitement burst onto his face, "Not yet, but I'm going to be the best ninja that ever lived! And one day, when I'm Hokage, everyone will have to acknowledge me and they'll be sorry!" his voice crescendoed and he began waving his arms with balled fists around for emphasis.

She eyed him curiously for a moment, "Why will they be sorry?" she asked.

He was quiet for a moment then looked down, "For some reason, everyone hates me." he sighed.

"I don't hate you." she stated, blankly staring at him.

"You don't?" he asked, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"Not yet anyways." she shrugged.

"Aw you're mean." he pouted.

A knock sounded on the doorframe, as the door was already wide open. The two occupants' heads jerked to the entrance to see a man in expensive looking robes followed by two men wearing similar clothes to Kakashi.

"Old-man Hokage!" Naruto shouted.

Said "old man" sighed. The girl's face scrunched up a bit in thought. There was that word again. 'Hokage'. It must mean someone of great power. She studied the man. He did have a superior-feeling aura to him, as though he still held much strength even in old age.

"So, you're the one that escaped your room, knocked out a nurse, and tried to run away. Quite the trouble maker." he nodded and smirked at the girl, remembering his own childhood.

"Naruto, I need to talk to this young lady alone. Would you mind leaving for a moment." he said, more like a command than a suggestion.

"Why do I have to leave? I'm sure it's nothing important!" he whined.

"Naruto..." the man said in a somewhat threatening voice.

Naruto stuck his tongue out and leapt down from the bed, dragging his feet along the floor as he made his way out of the room, sulking. One of the men went outside with him and shut the door. The other remained in the room.

"Do you remember your name?" he asked.

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" the girl sighed in exasperation.

He paused for a moment, holding back a smile as he was trying to be serious, "We found this in your hand." he held out a piece of dirty, crumpled paper.

She took it and unfolded it. It read 'Seshiru'.

"Is this my name?" she asked, looking back up to the man, who was sitting in the old arm chair.

"We weren't sure. Would you like it to be?" he suggested.

She shrugged, "I guess." She put the piece of paper on the table next to her bed.

"Alright. Let's talk more about you. What do you remember?" he folded his arms across his chest.

"Not anything specific... Just feelings. I can remember things. Just not people, or situations.. Places.." she trailed off.

He nodded his head, "We found a memory-altering jutsu on you."

"Will I get my memories back?" she asked, her voice now sounding unsure.

"No. It's not a jutsu we've seen before, and it looks irreversible. You sound like you don't want them back." he commented skeptically.

"I don't. If they're like the nightmares..." she trailed off again.

"Nightmares?" the man asked, his interest piqued.

"I had one... I was running; someone was chasing me. Kicked me through a wall. Had a weird laugh." she talked in broken sentences as she recalled different parts of her dream.

The man nodded again, "Alright. We still have a few more matters to discuss. About you staying here. Since we have no idea where you came from, we are allowing you to stay here, in Konoha." he paused and the girl nodded, seeming slightly relieved, "There is a condition. You are scheduled to enter the Konoha Ninja Academy starting in two weeks." The girl looked at him inquisitively, "I have no choice in this matter; the ninja counsel and the council of elders have elected to have you become a one. Something about us being short on ninjas." he paused and thought to himself.

Danzo had been more and more aggressive on what he wanted lately, especially on this matter. It was like he knew something about this girl.

"We have arranged for you to go to the local orphanage." he continued.

"No." she stated flatly.

"You have no choi-" he was cut off.

"I said no. I will run away. I don't want to be around... others." she hissed.

"Do you expect to live by yourself?" he sent her a challenging glare.

"Yes." she returned the glare with greater ferocity.

He sighed and contemplated it. Well, Naruto lived by himself. If someone like him could... "Fine." He looked at her.

He had expected to see a triumphant look on her face but instead she looked more relieved.

"You will receive a weekly allowance for food and other necessities. Don't expect much. This week you will receive extra to purchase clothes and a few personal belongings. Don't expect to be living in luxury either." he said, eyeing her for signs of disappointment.

He saw none.

"You certainly don't act your age." he sighed and stood up, his bones cracking.

"How old am I?" she asked.

"Eight. You seem more mature. You will make a good ninja." he signalled to the ANBU that they were leaving.

She thought to herself. So the whiskered boy was right. Eight years old.

"Tomorrow an apartment will be ready for you and an ANBU will escort you there." he paused at the entrance.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"The Hokage, the head of the village." he smiled at her.

"That boy. He wants to be the Hokage." she said.

"I know. I've heard his speech many times." he smiled again before leaving.

Seshiru leaned back on her pillow and sighed. It seemed she would have little time to adjust to this new life. She decided to question that boy about this village and how things worked as much as she could, so she could be adequately prepared. Sleep tantalized her every time she closed her eyes, but she refused its offers. Not this time. Not another nightmare.

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I didn't intend to post this until after school got out, but I really want to be a beta reader and there are story requirements for that so I'm posting early ^-^. I still won't be able to get a beta profile for another week or two but feel free to check out my beta profile and send me your stories when I do! I intend to update every week, and unless something tragic or unfortunate happens, I will hold true to my word. Of course... Reviews could always make me update a day early... Um, and please stick with this story. Trust me, it REALLY starts to pick up at chapter five. That's when the fun stuff begins.

Nyah! REVIEW OR I WILL THREATEN YOU WITH FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. RAWR!

Honestly, do please review! Your opinion is much appreciated, even if you are a guest. But I do ask you to be civil, like, don't start cussing me out and shouting and stuff like that. I am open to constructive criticism so give me your honest opinion.

See you next week, nyah! ~Marcy out!~


	2. Chapter 2

Hi Again! Here's chapter two super early, and early updates like this probably won't be super common unless I get reviews *hinthint*. So I would like to thank mg4of6 for reviewing! I'm glad you like my story ^-^ I would also like to specially thank my two beta readers Hayashi Yuuki and blackcatgirl! Your beta work was awesome and very helpful, and I apologize for not recognizing you last chapter! Well, enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, sadly. But having that extra income would be nice.

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Chapter 2.

-2 weeks later-

Seshiru didn't even know why she bothered to set the alarm clock. She gave up on sleep after all she had were those terrible nightmares. Fed up with the alarm clock, she reached across the bed, grabbed it, and threw it at the wall opposite her, hard. It left a sharp indent in the wall, shattered, and fell to the ground, where it broke into even smaller plastic shards with metal bits here and there. Sighing, she shifted her legs off the side of the bed and slid to the floor. She went into her small closet and pulled out a white skirt, brown tank top with a white sash, and a pair of brown flats. One of her three only outfits. The Hokage had been right; she wasn't living off of much money. She had barely been able to purchase something that could even qualify as "ninja clothes". Quickly, she slipped the new clothes on and went into the bathroom. She dragged a brush through her seemingly-perpetually tangled auburn hair until it was straight. Well, straight-ish. At least it looked more presentable. She brushed her teeth, all the time staring back at those unfamiliar, sharp, grey eyes. She left and went to the kitchen, grabbing a pre-made lunch from the fridge and a protein bar for breakfast. Reaching into a drawer in the kitchen, she pulled out a small packet of low-strength soldier pills. It was the only way she managed to stay awake without sleeping. She swung the door open, which yielded an unpleasant whine. She took note to save up money to oil the door hinges. The apartment staff weren't exactly very keen on keeping the place in good shape. She shut the door and locked it, putting the necklace the key was on back beneath her shirt. Next she leaned against the wall opposite to the room doors and took a comfortable pose of crossed arms and one foot propped up on the wall. She was waiting for "whiskers", as she dubbed the hyperactive blonde. She didn't even have to check to see if he was already out, because he would have waited for her. After about five minutes of waiting, she pulled out a pin and swiftly picked the lock to Naruto's door. She went to his apartment and knocked on the door to his room. She promptly heard someone scream, followed by a loud thud. Overslept.

"You need a new alarm clock." she stated blandly.

"Oi! Seshi! How'd you get in!" he yelled somewhat angrily.

"Picked the lock." she sighed. "You better hurry, you're gonna be late. If you're not out in five minutes I'm leaving."

Seshiru and Naruto had begun to hang out, but she still didn't really open up or act sociable. She didn't know how; she couldn't even remember her old personality, so she had to start from scratch. But Naruto was insistent on their friendship, even if it was a little one-sided. At least he had a friend, and for her, he was her guide to the village. He specifically knew about short cuts and other secret hiding places to the village that no one else knew about. He didn't say how, but she had surmised he was in the hospital for being attacked, and after he said "everyone hates me", she was pretty sure he had probably had to run from bullies on more than one occasion. Based off of that, though she thought he often acted childish, she thought he must have a brain in his skull somewhere, to be able to think quickly on his feet for an escape route like that, and be able to remember it. In about four minutes and thirty seconds, he threw the door open and stood grinning at a nonplussed Seshiru, in his typical prison-orange jumpsuit.

"Yosh! I'm ready!" he yelled energetically, pumping a fist in the air.

They both went into the kitchen.

"Any nightmares last night?" he asked; he was rather concerned about her nightmares.

"Didn't sleep." came her short reply.

"Again? That can't be good for you. I've heard that if you don't sleep for a week, you forget how to breath in your sleep." he babbled while grabbing his stuff.

"Soldier pills are quite an effective solution to that." She opened the door and stood in the doorway, waiting for him.

"Oh." He replied as he followed her out the door.

They dashed through hidden passages, abandoned alleys and took shortcuts, making it to the academy just in the nick of time.

"How did you know the way to the academy?" she asked as they entered the towering doors of the academy, Naruto at her side, giddy with excitement.

"Sometimes I came to watch other kids practice for pointers. I didn't want to wait until I was eight." he replied, looking at a slip of paper for the room number.

"It's that one over there." he pointed at a door at the end of the hall, before pausing. "You should wait before going in. They might hate you for being with me." he added and sighed somewhat dejectedly.

"No. Their hatred for me is irrelevant to my learning. Besides ... You're my only... friend. I think." she said, sounding a little unsure at the second last statement.

It was more like she was saying it for his benefit. She could tell he needed some reassurance.

"Don't blame it on me then." he shrugged and continued to the room, followed by her.

The moment they entered the room went silent. Actually, more like to a whisper. All eyes were on them. Seshiru took a seat next to a window and Naruto sat next to her. Seshiru took this moment to observe her new peers. A few caught her eye: a girl with anomalous pink hair, a girl who looked to be blind, but she knew her to be a Hyuuga - as Naruto had explained to her, their clan being one of the many who despised him - and a boy, whom Naruto was currently arguing with, who had hair like a duck's butt, among a few others.

"Shut up, dobe." the duck-butt haired kid jabbed at Naruto.

"Teme!" he shot back.

She turned around to observe their little spat.

"Who are you?" the duck-butt asked.

She looked at him, her expression not changing. He had a fiery glint in his obsidian eyes, somewhat similar to Naruto.

"Seshiru." she said, returning his challenging stare.

"Then its true." he stated.

"What is?" she replied.

"You're THAT girl. The one who got left at the front gates of the village."

"Your point?" she looked at him for explanation.

"You probably don't know about _him_. You shouldn't hang out with that good for nothing." he folded his arms across his chest and tried to stare her down.

"I am well aware of his... stigma." she returned the glare thrice as intimidating than his. "And I don't care." she clarified.

"Hn." he rolled his eyes and redirected his attention to the front of the room. "By the way, I'm Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke."

She ignored him. At that point, the teacher walked in. He had a pony tail similar to a sleeping boy nearby her and had a horizontal scar across his nose, all complemented by a confident smile.

"Hello class! I'm your sensei, Iruka, and welcome to your first day in your training to become the next generation of shinobi!" he said, his own excited smile growing wider.

His announcement caused an excited buzz of whisper among the students assembled to arise.

"Since I know all of you want to get outside and do some real work, we're going to start off with kunai training, but first we need to go over the basics." he picked up a piece of chalk and began drawing a diagram of a hand with kunai in it.

He took about fifteen minutes to explain the basic techniques of holding and throwing.

"Time to go outside! I hope you all brought your kunai, it's an afterschool detention if you didn't!" he warned as he walked over to the door.

Seshiru sighed. She hadn't been able to afford even the cheapest set. They went outside to two rows of upright, beat up, logs with slits down their middles. While most kids were pulling out shiny new kunai, she stood with a blank expression set on her face as she waited for her punishment.

"Where are your kunai, Seshi?" Naruto asked from a few log stations away.

"I.. couldn't afford any." she sighed.

"I'd lend one to you... But I forgot mine." he sighed.

She saw his expression sour in an instant, just as she felt something press into her hand. She flinched and turned around to see Sasuke standing there, waiting for a reply. She looked down and saw a bag, and upon opening it, found three brand new expensive looking kunai. She looked back at him.

"Thanks." she muttered, but he ignored her.

"Seshiru! Have your kunai?" Iruka asked and smiled at her.

She held Sasuke's kunai up and he nodded, checking her off the list. A minute later he got to Naruto. "Naruto, you got your kunai?" he said, though not as kindly as he had said to Seshiru.

"No." he pouted.

"After school detention it is." Iruka sighed and marked him down.

About five minutes later he was done checking everyone off.

"Ok! Remember what I said on throwing techniques and safety, and always stay focused on your target! You may begin!" he quickly backed out of the way from in between the two rows.

Seshiru put the kunai in her hand the way Iruka had instructed them to, but they felt off. She fiddled with them for a few seconds until they felt natural, like three extra fingers. She concentrated on the target placed on her log and everything around her seemed to disappear. With the flick of her hand, the kunai were embedded in the target with a blink of an eye. It took her a second to realize that the kunai had landed perfectly in the centre of the target. Around her the chatter seemed to stem for a moment and she noticed a few people staring at her. Sasuke in particular was giving her a rather harsh, competitive glare. She blinked, unfazed, and retrieved the kunai only to repeat the exercise again. Iruka took note of her accuracy and congratulated her.

"Good job! Are you sure you haven't done this before?" he said, an exited glint in his eye.

Another prodigy for Iruka.

"I don't know." she shrugged while tugging at the kunai, now lodged in the target again.

"That's right... You still don't remember anything do you?" he said, nodding to himself.

"No. Not really." she threw the kunai again and landed them flawlessly.

"That's fine. I look forward to having you as a student and seeing how you progress." Iruka stated before moving onto the next student. Sasuke stood and watched with something like a cross between jealousy and competitiveness. She was just like Itachi when he had first started at the academy. He watched her land them again and tried harder than ever before to concentrate on the target. He threw them with almost perfect accuracy. He grimaced. Just a few millimeters off.

"You know, it helps if you hold them like this." he heard Seshiru say in a flat tone.

She held out her hand, loaded with the kunai. He nodded and adjusted his. Two of his kunais landed perfectly. About thirty minutes later, Iruka called for lunch.

"Here." Seshiru held the bag of kunai out to Sasuke.

"Keep them." he said bitterly before turning away from her.

She shrugged and put them in her bag in exchange for a turkey sandwich and a bottle of water. She found a shady place under a tree, secluded from the chatter of the other students. Half way through her first bite, an orange clump fell from the tree. It sat up and awkwardly scratched the back of its head, revealing itself to be Naruto.

"Hey Seshi! Great job with those kunai!" Naruto said sheepishly.

"Why were you-" she was cut off.

"Leave her alone dobe." Sasuke walked up and sneered.

"Shut up teme!" Naruto leapt up and got in Sasuke's face.

"Don't listen to scum like him. He will only drag you down." he sneered again.

"She can talk to whoever she wants to!" Naruto yelled back.

Seshiru sighed, got up, and walked away, leaving the two to fight. Naruto threw the first punch, aiming at Sasuke's jaw. Sasuke ducked and swept his foot out, tripping Naruto. Naruto tried the same manoeuvre but Sasuke leapt up to avoid his feet and kicked Naruto onto his back. Naruto leapt up and swung at Sasuke's face again, but Sasuke lashed out and punched Naruto in the gut, sending him back into a tree. He got up and tried to have another go at Sasuke again, but Sasuke stepped aside and kicked Naruto in the back, sending him to the ground face-first. Just as Naruto was going to get back up again, Iruka came out and saw what was going on.

"Cut it out right now! I don't want to see any fighting on school property! Sasuke I'm very disappointed in you. Itachi would never do something like that. Everyone inside, right now!" Iruka's eyes bulged out of their sockets as he screamed.

The class filed inside, with Naruto and Sasuke at the back of the pack, eyeing each other with contempt. Once everyone was inside, kids began whispering amongst themselves and staring at Naruto and Sasuke, who were both rather sullen looking. Naruto stared out the window with a pout on his face, as his pride had been severely hurt, and Sasuke were boring holes into his desk with his stare; Iruka had crossed a line with the Itachi comment.

"Are you ok?" Seshiru asked Naruto.

"I'm fine!" he turned around and grinned at her. "I usually heal in a day or less, so Ill be fine."

"You would know. You get beat up enough." Sasuke snorted sarcastically from behind them.

"Shut up teme!" Naruto spun around and glared at Sasuke.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and suppressed a smirk. He had just thought up a brilliant idea. There was a way to test Seshiru's true kunai throwing abilities and annoy the dobe at the same time.

"Hey Seshiru, the Uchiha compound has a really good kunai throwing course, do you want to come over after school and try it out?" he asked, keeping a straight face.

She paused for a moment to think. "Where's the Uchiha compound?"

"Seshi you can't!" Naruto pleaded with her.

To him, it was like she was betraying him.

"Let her pick her own friends, idiot." Sasuke chided him. "You'll have to come with me; they won't let you in alone. It's on the other side of town."

"Ok." she nodded.

Sasuke smirked at Naruto, who frowned and turned away.

"If you'll stop belittling him and damaging what little pride he has." Seshiru continued, glaring at Sasuke.

"Fine." he muttered and turned away.

"You too whiskers. Stop egging him on." she turned to Naruto and suggested.

"Whatever." he sighed.

An hour or two later, class was over. There was a mad rush to the door, but Seshiru and Sasuke stayed behind them to avoid getting themselves trampled.

"Is either of your parents coming to pick you up?" Seshiru asked as they exited the big door of the academy to have the sun's sweltering heat try to cook them.

"No. My dad is always busy with clan stuff and my mom is probably cooking or cleaning." Sasuke sighed dejectedly.

Seshiru could tell his family was a touchy subject for him, so she decided not to implore further. She still wondered though who this Itachi person was. It was indeed a long trek to the Uchiha compound, especially since Sasuke didn't seem to know any short cuts. In about 15 minutes, they finally reached it. As they approached a guard appeared from the shadows.

"Who are you?" he motioned to Seshiru.

"She's my... friend." Sasuke replied.

She wasn't exactly his friend, but he needed an excuse. The guard nodded and stood aside, letting them in. She followed Sasuke through a series of streets and alleys. The place was like a miniature town. Shortly they arrived to a large mansion that stood above all the other housing developments, and Seshiru assumed it was Sasuke's house.

"Wait out here." he said and entered into the building.

She stared at the door, waiting for him to come out. She could hear what was going on inside though.

"Kaa-san! I'm home!" she heard Sasuke shout, presumably to his mother.

"How was your first day?" she heard a female voice reply warmly.

That got her thinking. Seshiru wondered what it was like to have a mother. Or any other family at all. Accompanying those thoughts though, were thoughts of her nightmares. Was the man chasing her in her dreams her father? Or had she been kidnapped? Her face scrunched up at the painful thoughts.

"What's wrong?" she heard someone say, breaking her out of her daymare.

Her face was back to its usual blank expression in less than a second.

"I'm fine." she said, somewhat unsure.

The voice belonged to Sasuke.

"Come on. I just had to say hi to my mom." he motioned for her to follow.

She nodded and followed him down a path that led to a small wood. The path ended in a small, but spacious clearing filled with targets.

"Here it is. The goal is to hit all seven in one go." he motioned his arms to all of the targets.

He handed her five more kunai. She took out her other three and fit them in her hands and inspected the targets.

"What's the eighth one for?" she asked, looking for an eighth target.

"You have to use it to hit one down to that target." Sasuke pointed to a target behind a rock.

She nodded and took her stance, while Sasuke ducked behind a tree for safety. She jumped and spun around, the kunai leaving her hands for their targets. She hit most of the targets perfectly, except for a one or two that were further away and one behind the rock, which was more obviously off. Sasuke came out from behind the tree and looked at the targets, grimacing somewhat.

"Impressive." a taller figure somewhat resembling Sasuke stepped out from behind a tree. "But if these were real targets, you'd be dead by now."

He contradicted his compliment with a frown. Seshiru, blinked, unfazed. This person had a rather intense gaze, but it didn't affect her in the least.

"Did you come to help me practice?" Sasuke asked excitedly and ran over to the new figure.

"Maybe later." he poked Sasuke on the forehead rather hard and continued, "Kaa-san didn't say you brought a friend over. Or is she your girlfriend?" his face almost smiled.

Sasuke rubbed his forehead and glared at the person.

"No. We are acquaintances. Duck-butt wanted to see how good I really was with kunai and get on someone else's nerves. Who are you?" she walked up and stood next to Sasuke.

Sasuke gave her a 'how the heck did you know' stare, as she had called on his bluff. "This is Itachi, my older brother." he motioned to Itachi.

Seshiru nodded a hello, "My name is Seshiru."

"Have you trained with kunai other before?" He asked inquisitively.

"I don't know." she shrugged and glanced at the targets.

"You must be the girl found at the front gates a few weeks ago." he stared her down.

She nodded.

"Please can we train?" Sasuke asked again, "You always say 'maybe later'."

"I'm busy. Maybe tomorrow. I must be going." Itachi nodded and left.

Sasuke sat on a rock and rested his chin on his hands.

"He always says that." he sighed.

"Then why do you count on him to fulfil his promise?" Seshiru raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know, it's because he's my brother, I guess." he stared at the ground thoughtfully.

"So do you want to actually train or should I go since I've shown you my abilities." she asked, straightening up as if to get ready to go.

"You can go. How did you know?" he asked, looking up at her.

She shrugged, "Dunno. I just did."

She picked up the five other kunai to hand them back, but again, Sasuke refused.

"I'm not a charity. I only need three." she reoffered them.

He sighed and took them back, shoving them into his own bag. They followed the same path back to the front of the house and continued to the front gate, where Sasuke remained while Seshiru continued on. Seshiru was home about thirty minutes later, having gotten lost once. Or twice. She got in the elevator, pressed the button, and slumped against the side tiredly. She was more tired from the walk home than the actual 'practice'. She shoved the key into the lock and swung the door open. She set her stuff down on the kitchen counter and kicked the door shut. Naruto must have heard because thirty seconds later there was an incessant pounding on the door. Seshiru got up from the couch she was being lazy on and opened the door, and was pushed out of the way as a familiar orange clad figure pushed his way through the doorway and took her lazy spot on the couch. She sat down on an armchair and stared at him, but he said nothing.

"Are you going to say something?" she asked impatiently.

He didn't respond.

"Hm. So you came here to give me the silent treatment." she nodded to herself and smiled sarcastically.

Silence.

"You know, he didn't actually want to train with me. He wanted to annoy you while at the same time assess my true ability with kunai." she went on.

He finally looked at her.

"You mean you don't hate me or anything?" he said, almost hopeful.

She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Of course not." she let out a small smile.

"I've never seen you smile before!" Naruto gasped.

"You've only known me for two weeks." she deadpanned.

"You've only known yourself for two weeks." he replied jokingly.

"You know, you're right." she grew serious.

"Huh. I guess so." he agreed.

A silence hung over the two after their revelation.

"Wanna have ramen for dinner?" he asked excitedly.

"I had some last night with you." Seshiru deadpanned.

"Yeah, so?" Naruto replied confusedly.

Seshiru introduced her forehead to her palm.

"I think I'll pass." she sighed.

* * *

Nyah hope you liked it! As always, REVIEW! Or Seshiru will throw kunai at you!

Seshiru: Why would I want to do that?

Marcy: Because I said so.

Seshiru: Whatever. *walks away*

Anyways, please review as your opinion is much appreciated!

-Marcy out!-


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter One

Galaco's POV

I guess for humans, being born isn't quite so weird. I mean, you don't actually remember anything. For a computer program, it's just like - BAM! - you exist. And you already know everything, and you're all grown up. Your experiences have already been programmed, you don't get to develop a personality… You're simply _there,_ now – you're already an established entity.

Well, I was 'born' in a kitchen. I just appeared there, with no warning whatsoever, and blinked my eyes awake to see the new life I was to lead. I wonder what my purpose was?

I glanced through a window above a counter into a dining room,where an assortment of people were sitting and eating pizza. Nasty. I could see the shine of the grease from here.

"Um, hello? Where am I?" I asked politely ((perhaps mention something about how her voice sounds to her here? This is the first time she'd have heard it, after all)).

"Welcome to the Voca-verse!" a young girl, looking about my age, greeted between bites of pizza. She had twin, aqua pigtails, which was kind of fascinating. "What's your name?"

"Galaco." I cocked an eyebrow. "And yours is?"

"Hatsune Miku!" she cirped, cheerful as what I was recognizing as always. "Come, have some pizza. It probably won't be long until you sing your first song!" She smiled, as if to assure me.

This chick seems pretty nice, I can't help but think. ((Maybe add: "I wonder if she's a human, or a program like me?" or something like that? Or does she already know who's human or vocaloid?))

I cautiously made my way to an empty spot at an over-sized table that held probably about 40 or so spots. Why would they need a table this big? Besides me and Miku, there was only a girl with long pink hair, a guy with messy blue hair, a girl with choppy green hair, a brunette with a sassy grin on her face, and a man with long purple hair. What a strange lot...

I could hear other voices drifting in from another room, so maybe they would fill up the rest of the spots at the table? One could only assume. I decided to wave sheepishly at the people currently there, though, hoping to make a good impression. The greenette smiled and waved back while the others just stared me down. What did I do to earn such unfriendly looks?

"I'm Megpoid Gumi," the greenette told me with a smile. "You can call me Gumi!" She stuck her hand out.

"Nice to meet you." I smiled back and shook her hand. When she sat down again, I grabbed myself a slice of pizza and took a bite. It was ok, minus the grease.

"So, how much did you cost?" Miku asked. All their eyes bored into me after she did.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I had no clue what they were talking about

"Silly! How much did Master pay to get you? I cost $296!" She grinned, as if proud… There was something offsetting about that grin.

"Um, I was free," I mumbled, suddenly feeling like a black sheep or something. "A prize, I think."

"Free? Oh my!" She paused, "I wonder what your singing voice sounds like."

"Heh, me too." I half smiled and took another bite of pizza.

"I was $268," Gumi piped up. She then pointed at blueby and introduced: "Kaito was $321," she gestured to the purple guy, "Gakupo was $370," she pointed at the girl with pink hair, "Luka was $498," lastly, she pointed at the sassy brunette, "and Meiko was $374."

I raised my eyebrows as she said that. Now I'm really feeling that I… didn't quite belong. Yeah, I'm probably not gonna remember any of that either... ((What is "that" exactly? I'm a little confused…))

"You are the 19th person Master has obtained," Miku commented, eyes intently boring into mine.

"What are you?" I asked with curiosity.

"Four," Miku replied with a weird smile.

"Seven!" Gumi chirped.

"Meiko and I were the first," Kaito replied, not looking up from his pizza. Though he did smirk when Meiko grinned at him.

"Luka and I were sixth," Gakupo said before he took a sip of -something?- and seemed to glare at me.

I just stared back at them all. Were they jealous when new people came in? Did they take pride in the lower their number was? And for that matter, did they take pride in how much they had cost?

I didn't get to figure any of these questions out because my skin started to glow blue just then.

"Whoah, what's going on?" I asked, looking down and standing up to examine myself.

Miku gasped. "Master's going to use you for your first song!"

"Good luck!" Gumi grinned and waved.

Then, everything was black for a split second. When it was light again, I was in a vast, grey, expanse. I tried to say hello, but my mouth wouldn't even move. It was completely silent for a few minutes, and then the first few bars of a song began to play. To my surprise, I soon found myself singing the words.

Unwillingly.

It took a bit to get used to, you know – involuntarily singing. Gosh, I sounded terrible. ((Is the crowd cheering, booing, or can she not hear? Or is this just practice?))

Eventually, I began to re-sing line after line for what seemed like forever until, thankfully, the song stopped. Minutes later, the now familiar melody resumed from the very beginning and played all the way through. A few seconds after that was over, there was another blue flash and I found myself standing back in the kitchen. Gumi, Kaito, Gakupo, Meiko, Miku, and Luka were still sitting there, now drinking sake. Gumi was giggling madly and sitting on Gakupo's lap with his arms around her.

"How'd it *hic* go?" Miku giggled.

"I-I don't know," I told them honestly. "It was -weird- at first." I shrugged.

"Come on, drink some sa-hic-ke!" Miku held up a bottle.

I nodded slowly and made my way to the dining room, sitting down at the same seat I had been in before. She poured me a glass while giggling and hiccupping, then slid the glass over to me. It stopped a few feet in front of me, so I stretched across the table to grab it and held it up to my nose, inhaling the scent. It smelled nasty.

"Come on silly, drink it!" Miku laughed.

I grinned sheepishly and took a sip. My face involuntarily scrunched up as the bitter liquid caught in my throat.

"Hehe," Kaito chuckled, grinning at me. "First time is always the best time."

I pushed the sake away and coughed. "I think I'll just have water."

"Hehe, you'll get used to it one day," Miku slurred and giggled at me, then paused. "Galaco," she addressed me seriously, "would you like to be our friend?"

"Uh, sure?" I found myself saying. "Why not…" What was I supposed to say? No?

"Ok," Miku said with a nod. "But you have to pass your singing test. Be honored by my request – I don't ask just anyone to be my friend, but you seem cool." Her speech was surprisingly coherent for a drunk person, I couldn't help but notice. But what did she mean?

"Singing test?" I asked, tilting my heada little.

"Yeah," Miku told me, holding up her index finger informingly. "At the end of the day, most of us gather in the living room and listen to Master's masterpieces. It's always a special event when a new vocaloid comes." She smiled at me, yet again. Something is beginning to bug me about her smile. What am I getting myself into? I hope the rest aren't like this.

At that moment, a tall platinum blonde woman who seemed kinda goth walked in and grinned at me. What was with everyone grinning all the time?

"Polluting more minds, Miku?" she snorted.

"Who are you?" I asked the new person.

"Who are _you?_" she retorted, smiling at me slyly.

"Shut up, Miriam!" Miku screamed and launched a bottle of sake at Miriam's head in a drunken fashion.

Miriam nimbly dodged and laughed meanly. Then she turned to me. "Hey, listen new kid – don't listen to Miku. She's a total bitch!" Miriam rolled her eyes and glared at Miku.

…Ehhh… I don't know what to do… Luckily I was saved when another blonde chick, who was younger and wore a large white bow in her hair, came in and started shouting:

"Master's logged off! We can watch the videos now!" She jumped cheerily with a large smile, the hair ribbon bobbing up and down.

Everyone else around the table got up and filed into the vast living room, excitedly chatting amongst themselves. I followed in suit, definitely feeling like an outsider now since I didn't really have a "friend" to talk to.

Wow, the living room was freakin' huge! One whole wall was the television while there were various wrap-around couches everywhere, some even including foot recliner things. I sat in the front between Miku and Kaito, nervously waiting for my video to play. ((Is she looking forward to hearing her voice again since it sounded awful to her? Is she afraid the other's won't like her once they hear her sing? There's a lot of things she could be "nervous" about.))

"Guys! Wait!" The room fell silent when Miku shouted. "I just realized something!" She turned to smile at me before pulling me up, "This is Galaco!" she cried, making me feel a little embarrassed. "The first Vocaloid 3!"

The room seem silent for a minute as they all regarded me, making me feel kind of vulnerable. ((Add: "What was a Vocaloid 3, anyways? What's the difference?"?)) Soon, though, the chatter resumed, either talking about me or not caring enough to.

"Wow, so cool!" Gumi clapped for me.

"I bet that means I'll get updated soon!" Kaito commented to Miku.

"Nice!" Miku high-fived him.

The lights in the room dimmed like some kind of movie theatre and the first video began to play. I honestly couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl at first; the person had short yet girly white hair and bi-colored blue and green eyes. Based on Miku's incessant whispering in my ear the entire time about how this Utatane Piko person must be a transvestite, referring to -him?- as "he," I'm guessing he's a guy. I felt bad for him. His voice was perfectly fine –great, even- but he sounded and looked like a girl. I'm sure he receives crap for that, as evidenced by Miku's chattering.

After him came an older looking guy with brown hair and a white forelock who had stitches all over his body. He sounded like he was trying to make his voice sound deep, which, in other words, means it sounded like crap. Miku said he was Big Al, and that he had a thing for one of her friends, Ia, who was currently down with the flu.

I began to squirm as the first few notes of a song that was all too familiar began to play.

"It's you!" Miku squealed, shaking my shoulder while pointing wildly at the screen.

Wait, I thought she was drunk? How is she acting so sober? Oh well, everyone here is weird.

I froze as I heard my own voice begin to sing. I glanced at Miku, who was silently and intently watching. I didn't know if that was good or bad; her face wasn't revealing anything.

It seemed like the song went on forever, just like before, and when it was finally over, I could feel everyone staring at me. Then Miku stood up.

"You sound dead." She looked at me like I was trash, then shrugged. "Well, you were just a free giveaway." The way she said that made me feel even worse. "Shouldn't have expected much from you in the first place."

With that, she, Meiko, Gumi, Luka, Gakupo, and Kaito got up to leave. I heard Meiko snicker something to the effect of "her voice is flatter than Rin's chest" before they left completely though, and I just sat in shock. One moment, Miku was acting like I was her best friend, and the next moment she's a complete bitch. Miriam was right…

I didn't know what to do, and for some reason I could hear my name being whispered around me. It was nerve-racking, almost starting to give me a headache.

I looked up when Miriam plopped down next to me. "Toldja," she said with a simple shrug. "One moment she's nice, next moment she's the devil." She threw her head back and stared at the ceiling. "So, you were a prize of some sort? That's a first."

"Is that bad?" I asked, unsure.

"In Miku's eyes," she said with an eye roll. "No one else probably cares." She sighed and threw her arms behind her head.

"So what do you think of my voice?" I asked, hoping she didn't have Miku's reaction.

"Well, it _is_ Master's first time using your voice. It won't be perfect the first time," she reassured.

I hope so, though her words did make me feel a lot better.((If you want, it could be cool if Miriam mentioned something about Miku's voice sounding horrible at first, too. Or, if Miku had come before her, she could say that she heard it was bad from others. Just if you want. Or maybe the reason she's a bitch is because her voice was "perfect" right off the bat? Or does she just act this way because she's the most popular? There's a lot of different spins to take, I suppose… did you already have a plan relating to this?))

A girl with sakura-blossom colored hair a hello kitty t-shirt suddenly walked in. She ran up and introduced herself, and, surprisingly, she had a mature voice for someone who looked that young.

"I'm Nekomura Iroha!" she said happily, sticking her hand out for me to shake.

I took it cautiously, though that was in vain since she shook it wildly.

"I'm sorry, she's not usually like this," sighed a boy who looked like the Piko from the video. Except he was wearing regular clothes and didn't look as, um, feminine.

"Are you Utatane Piko? From the video?" I cocked an eyebrow.

He half-smiled and nodded. "Yep." His face darkened. "You don't think I look like a female? Or am bi, or gay? Do you?"

"No! Man, I hardly know you." I sighed, hoping he wouldn't pound my face in. With that reaction, it seemed like he _did_ get teased about it a lot. Probably from Miku. But at least he looked relieved now.

"Ah, thanks," he said gratefully, smiling.

"You get that a lot, don't you?" I smiled weakly at him.

"What are you trying to say?" His face darkened again.

Wow, this guy got offended easily… "Why would you ask me if you didn't?" I cocked an eyebrow again.

"Ah, of course…" He smiled sheepishly. "So, you got any friends yet?"

"I'm not sure," I said, frowning. "I talked to someone named Miriam a bit, and Miku and her friends just publicly dissed me…" I scratched a nonexistent itch on the back of my head nervously.

"You can be me and Iroha's friend," Piko said, smiling understandingly. "Hey – you're number 19, right? I was number 18, so I'm still kinda new here. Oh, Iroha's number 13." He nodded his head as he talked, making the ahoge on top of his head swing around. I couldn't help but laugh; it looked like a fish out of water!

"Wh-what are you laughing at?" He looked flabbergasted.

"Your hair – it's flying all over the place!" I giggled, but quickly added, "Don't worry, I'm not making fun of you," to reassure him.

"Ah, that happens a lot." Piko sighed and futilely tried to smooth his hair down.

We walked in silence for a bit longer.

"So," I spoke up, looking at him. "Is it just you and Iroha then?"

"There's SONiKA," Piko told me. "She's like a big sis to us." He nodded, looking around for her. As if on cue, someone with curly green hair in a high ponytail strided over.

"So, you're Galaco?" She eyed me before asking, using a menacing tone, "You're not making fun of Piko, are you?" She cracked her knuckles and narrowed her eyes.

"Of course not! Galaco's really nice!" Piko clung to SONiKA's arm, "Please, don't kill her."

"As long as she's nice." SONiKA smiled and patted Piko's head. She turned to me. "I'm SONiKA." She held a hand out for me to shake, so I did, managing a small smile as I eyed the tattoos covering her shoulders.

"You were pretty good for your first time," SONiKA complimented. "Don't listen to Miku; she lets it get to her head that she's the most popular Vocaloid." She rolled her eyes.

"It sounds like everyone hates her..." I put in, smirking.

"Yeah, pretty much," she said, shrugging. "Except her lackies." She glanced behind herself cautiously, as if they would be right there. But she seemed so tough, why would she be afraid of those guys?

"Aw," Piko said suddenly, smiling. "Iroha's crashed." He pointed to a couch where she was curled up, sleeping. Maybe it was just the light, but I swear I saw him blush when he looked at her.

"I'll take her up to her room," Piko said, sounding just a bit too nervous. He left me and SONiKA standing against the wall, watching him. He gingerly took her into his arms, careful not to wake her.

"He likes her, doesn't he," I asked SONiKA once they had left the room, smirking.

"Yup. She's one of the only people who doesn't tell him he's gender confused, shota, bi, or gay," SONiKA explained, smiling softly. "She stands up for him and he does the same for her, etc." She leaned against the wall. "You must be tired. All the bedrooms are in the north end of the house – I can show you there," she offered.

"Sure. Everyone else is wearing casual clothes, do I have to wear this?" I gestured to my outfit. "Or do I have other clothes too?"

"We can go shopping for some tomorrow, if you want, but you can borrow some of mine for now," she said easily with a shrug.

"That sounds fine." I nodded. "So, where's my room?"

"This way." SONiKA led me down a nearby hallway that I had already seen many people go through. We took a few turns until we ended up at a dead end, where there was a door that had my name on it. "Here you go!" she gestured towards the door and opened it, revealing a giant room just as lavish as the rest of the house. There was a giant, four-poster bed with space-themed curtains, and one wall was even painted like outer space. The others were pink, blue, and yellow.

"Wow!" I exclaimed, gaping at the room. "It's so - nice!" When did they have time to do this…? To my knowledge, I was just born a little while ago.

SONiKA laughed lightly, pleased with my reaction. "See ya tomorrow morning." She waved and smiled before leaving, shutting the door behind her.

I flopped onto the bed and pulled the covers over me. Even though I hadn't really "done much," I felt exhausted. I flipped onto my back, but as the pillow was so squishy it started to suffocate me a little. I clapped my hands and the lights turned off, leaving the room in total darkness.

I fell asleep within minutes, before my eyes could even adjust to the darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

Yo! Chapter four is here a day early thanks TO MY REVIEWERS. A round of applause for them please ^-^. Gah! I'm so frustrated! I edited this thing for like 30 minutes and when I tried to save it the page glitched and erased all my progress. *punches hole in wall*

One another note... Special thanks to my beta readers blackcatgirl and Hayashi Yuuki! Now enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But I own Naruto sims. And a Seshiru sim. Oh, and I also own Seshiru in real life, so don't steal her or I'll hunt you down.

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Chapter Four.

Seshiru sat up from yet another sleepless night. She was eager for the mission simulation. It would, perhaps, be the first thing that would come as a challenge for her. Maybe. If the other kids provided a challenge. She went into her bathroom and took a quick shower. Just as she finished getting dressed, she heard a knock on the door. She already knew who it was. No one else would be knocking on her door other than Whiskers. She headed out to where the kitchen was, as the door was right next to it, and opened the door to a grinning Whiskers, who looked quite excited.

"You're ready early." she stated the obvious.

"I know! I can't wait for the mission simulation!" he pushed past her like he always did and went into her kitchen to forage for food.

She had given up since yesterday on making him get his own food. All he had at his house was instant ramen and spoiled milk. He wouldn't get any nutritious food if he didn't eat hers. She frowned as he stuffed the food in his mouth by the handful. He ate like a pig. She followed after him and took a protein bar from a cabinet and began eating that. She had already packed her bag the night before, save the food. She went to the fridge and shoved Whiskers out of the way and grabbed a turkey sandwich before he could eat it and grabbed a bottle of water. She quickly shoved them in her bag.

"Let's go. Do you still need you slip signed by the hokage?" she asked.

"Yeeaaah..." he said guiltily.

"Good thing we're leaving early." she said flatly, glaring at him.

"Heheh... Sorry..." he scratched the back of his head and grinned, his stereotypical 'oops' pose.

"Yeah. Sorry indeed." she rolled her eyes and headed for the door, closely followed by Whiskers.

They didn't live too far from the hokage mansion, so it only took them a minute or two to get there. They went into the reception area and looked at the receptionist, who looked up from a large stack of paper work. Seshiru could see the look of disgust in her eyes as they lingered on Naruto. It made her want to slap the women. She didn't understand why everyone hated him so much; sure, he was annoying and broke a bunch of rules, but was that really enough to hate one person so much? Seshiru's glare hardened at the women, who said nothing. She stared at them as if she expected them to ask themselves what they needed.

"Excuse me; we are here to see the hokage. It won't take long, we just need some permission slips signed for school." Seshiru promptly explained to break the awkward silence.

"Why didn't you ask your parents?" she asked, smacking her gum and pushing her glasses up her nose.

"We are orphans." Seshiru stated bluntly.

She knew the woman knew that. Everyone did. But it was as if she wanted to make them say it, as if saying it out loud would reaffirm their situation and put them in their place.

"Look, he's really busy right-" she was cut off as the hokage himself came down the stairs to the left.

"Sure, let me see those papers. They're for the mission simulation, right?" he smiled kindly at them.

He took the papers and pulled a pen from his robe and quickly signed them, handing them back. The secretary looked quite annoyed at his appearance. Seshiru noticed the hokage shoot an irritated glare at her, and she rolled her eyes in reply. By now, they were heading out and Seshiru could hear him talking to her in hushed tones, but couldn't make out what he was saying. She could tell he was angry though, thus she could make the assumption that the hokage did care about Naruto. That makes one person. Well, there WAS herself too, if she really counted. Now they headed towards the Academy, which at least wasn't too far away. They ended up reaching it in time for class and handed their permission slips in to Iruka who smiled and nodded at them. They went to their seats, and sat. Naruto couldn't sit still, so instead he changed his position every five seconds in anxiety and anticipation.

"Would you cut it out?" Seshiru chided him, as he was driving her peripheral vision nuts.

"Sorry." he grinned at her, but she didn't return the gesture.

She never did. As soon as everyone was in their seats, Iruka walked up to the front of the room and called for them to be silent.

"As you all know, today is your mission simulation!" he said excitedly.

The class began to chatter again, and again, he had to call for silence.

"Since you have all turned in your permission slips and no one has to stay behind, we will get straight to the point: going over instructions. Now I hope you all got your provisions that were listed on your permission slip. If not, that is your disadvantage, and your teams' disadvantage. But anyways, here's the rules." he went on to explain the point of the simulation and all the rules.

The main point of this exercise was for each team to try and reach the top of a small mountain and retrieve a scroll and be back by the next day. The catch was that there was only one scroll. About ten minutes later, when he was completely done, it was time for them to get into their groups and meet their senseis. The class went into the indoor cafeteria and got in their groups and found their senseis. Seshiru went to the table with the plaquard with an 8 carved into it. She sat and waited for her other teammates to arrive. The Kimie girl arrived first. She had black shoulder length hair that covered her left eye and wore plain, neutral clothes. She didn't say a word as she sat down across from Seshiru. Next, the boy named Souta came next. He had normal brown hair and brown eyes, and wore regular civilian clothing. Seshiru guessed he wasn't from one of the clans at all, not even a branch. He remained silent too. Seshiru was thankful for their silence, as she would rather have mute teammates than rowdy ones. After everything was settled down, which only took about five minutes, their genin senseis came in. Seshiru watched as a strange blue haired man with red eyes scanned the room and started heading over to her table. He wore a confidant, energetic smirk and walked with a spring in his step.

"Team eight! Wow I'm excited, what about you guys? No time for that, we need introductions! I'm Tsuji Makito- your awesome and awe-inspiring genin sensei!" he practically shouted at the speed of light, eyes aglow with excitement.

His rant earned him a few looks from around the room, but he didn't seem to notice or care.

"Your guys' turn!" he said, eyeing them all.

When no one made to speak up, he took matters into his own hands.

"Alright, you with the black hair- you're first." he pointed at Kimie.

Kimie was nonplussed by this and resorted to sending a mild glare at Makito, "My name is Kimie." she said quietly.

"You next." he pointed at Seshiru and crossed his arms.

"Seshiru." she said flatly.

"And you." he looked to Souta.

"Souta." he said, barely above a whisper.

"I got a group of shy people!" Makito said excitedly. "That means more team building!"

The group of three sweatdropped at the idea and seemed to shoot around a silent message to each other: do NOT participate in the team building. Makito seemed to notice, and glared at them. He pulled a crumpled paper out of his pocket, unraveled it, and shoved it in their faces.

"Guess I'll just have to give you all F's in my evaluation!" he smirked as he saw them grimace at the notion.

"Then team building it is!" he smiled.

"Just when exactly are we going to have time for that when competing against numerous other teams in a race to obtain one object?" Seshiru deadpanned at him.

"We can sing on the way there!" he shot back, with a challenging glare in his eyes.

"And get out of breath, making us slower." she replied, her face devoid of expression.

"Play a game during lunch." he argued.

"And again, make us eat slower, thus slowing us down." Seshiru replied with a sigh.

"Sing campfire songs at night."

"And give away our location."

"Sleep in the same sleeping bag."

"And have me report you as a pedophile."

"Whatever." he glared at her as he realized all his ideas would just slow them down or get him in trouble. "But teamwork is still paramount on a mission like this. I do expect you guys to work as a well-oiled unit, as if you've been a team your entire life. I was serious about your evaluation and you will be graded on this." he grew serious.

The group understood. Soon someone told them it was time to head out to the training ground. The volume rose quite a few decibels as people herded together at the door, trying to stay with their teams. Eventually they got outside the front of the Academy and walked down the yet-to-be-busy sidewalk about halfway across town, out to the outer edges where the training grounds were located. They filed through the main entrance and went to pre-allotted starting positions.

"Alright, so here's the map. We're going to take this route-" he pointed to the longest route on the map and was cut off by Souta.

"That's the longest route on the map." he stated.

"Sure is. I scouted this place out last night and it was also the route with the fewest obstacles, and everyone's going to want to take the short routes, so we'll run into fewer enemies." Makito explained, as if he expected someone to comment on his choice of path.

"We'll eat lunch about right here," he pointed to another spot, "and we should reach the scroll before we need to sleep. Once we obtain it, we can find somewhere hidden to sleep and continue back in the morning." he finished. "Sound good?"

The three nodded in unison.

"Alright well we only have about a minute or two before it's time to head off, so get ready!" he got into a starting position and the others did likewise.

As if on cue, Iruka called for them to begin and off they went. In less then a minute they reached the trees and took to the treetops, dashing across the wide limbs of the forest giants. They ran for maybe an hour or two with only one or two stops to drink some water or eat a snack, but never rested long. They had adopted a specialized formation: Makito at front as he was the leader, Souta and Kimie in the middle, and Seshiru in the rear to listen for pursuers. Eventually, she did hear pursuers and double tapped her foot on a branch as she was running across it and immediately she and her team dropped to the ground and turned to face whoever had been following. About thirty seconds later, their pursuers caught up and landed in front of them. It was Sasuke's team, but their sensei wasn't there. Sasuke smirked when he saw Seshiru.

"I've been waiting for this. A chance to fight you for real." Sasuke dashed forward and charged at Seshiru, followed closely by his teammates who went after Seshiru's respectively.

As he ran at her, Sasuke shot a round of kunai, which she easily dodged by sliding onto the ground and attempting to trip him as he went by. He leapt over her feet and tried to land a kick on her, but she rolled out of the way and shot some of her own kunai at him in retaliation, one giving him a scratch on his cheek. He held his hand up to his stinging wound and glared at her as he prepared to attack her again. This time he tried to engage her in a taijutsu battle. He was sure he could beat her at this, after all he was an Uchiha and Uchihas are fast. Unfortunately for him, she nimbly dodged all his advances and tried to strike back with her own moves, ones he didn't recognize at all. Her taijutsu style was completely unfamiliar with him and thus extremely hard to predict. It effectively distracted him then faked him out, so she was able to land quite a few hits on him. She finished him off by pretending to punch him then using the momentum from the punch to flip backwards and kick him in the chest and send him into a tree. He got back up slowly, wiping some blood off his face. His sensei finally appeared, as he saw his team was getting beaten and decided they needed help. Seshiru caught a glance of him in her peripheral vision. He wore big round glasses, which he pushed up his nose casually as he stared down Makito. Something about his appearance clicked in her memory and gave her a stream of flashbacks: being strapped to a table, someone with glowing hands over her stomach and quietly saying something, and a small red mark appeared on her stomach. She let out a strange half-scream and fell to her knees in pain as she felt her stomach start to burn again, as if someone was putting an iron on it. She fell to her hands and gently lifted her shirt off her stomach to see the same red mark: a plain little circle. All at once her body began to burn from the inside out as if she was being boiled alive. She let out an agonizing scream and Sasuke took this moment to attack again. Instead, her hand shot out instinctively, sending him flying backwards into a tree, which cracked in disapproval. She stood eerily still as the tree moaned, slowly making its decent to the earth and landing with an earsplitting crack. Seshiru let out a stream of hysterical laughter that seemed somehow unnatural and charged at Sasuke. Her eyes were suddenly completely black, even the sceleras. They had an animalistic rage to them; she obviously wasn't in her right mind at the moment. Sasuke barely ducked out of the way as Seshiru came at him and instead barreled into a tree, knocking it over. She wasted no time in charging him again, and this time she was faster. Sasuke wasn't able to get out of the way and was tackled by Seshiru, who pinned him to the ground. She repeatedly punched him in the face, and soon he was knocked out.

"Get your student off of mine!" Sasuke's sensei yelled angrily as he saw Seshiru beating Sasuke to a pulp in a mad frenzy.

"Seshiru! Get off him, you're gonna kill him!" Makito yelled and ran over.

She turned around for a split second before ignoring him and punching Sasuke again. Makito grimaced and pulled a senbon out and fired it at her with deadly accuracy, landing it square on a pressure point, causing her to pass out. Her eyes slowly faded back to normal and she passed out on top of Sasuke, who had blood coming out of his nose and mouth as he lay unconscious. Makito pulled out a walky-talky.

"Hello? We have two medical emergencies, we need a medic squad right now!" he said urgently.

"We'll have one out as fast as possible." a voice replied.

A few seconds later some medic nins appeared with two stretchers from thin air and quickly hoisted Seshiru and Sasuke onto them. Then they teleported everyone to the ninja hospital. The doctors rolled the stretchers straight to the E.R. Makito was the only one that remained in the waiting room, Seshiru's teammates and Sasuke's teammates left. Makito felt it was his duty to stay since he too had heard the rumors about Seshiru not having a family. About fifteen minutes later a woman who resembled a female version of Sasuke walked in. She looked distraught and had wet tear tracks where it was obvious she had been crying. She glanced at Makito, who tried to smile reassuringly, which she tried to return.

"Who are you here for?" she asked quietly.

"It was the mission simulation; one of my team members was hurt really bad. She doesn't have a family." he replied. "I'm guessing you're here for that boy she was fighting. I think his name is Sasuke?" he asked.

She nodded and sniffled a bit.

"What happened?" she asked, trying to keep her tears back.

"I don't know. They were fighting one minute, then the other team's sensei came in and she started having some kind of fit. She was screaming in pain when Sasuke tried to attack her again, but she hit him really hard and made him fly into a tree. Then she started attacking him like some kind of animal. I could see the look in her eyes; she wasn't in her right mind. They had turned completely black. She got him pinned down and was punching him repeatedly. I had to knock her out with a senbon or she would've killed him." he explained, getting concerned as the woman's look went from distraught, to surprise, to horror, and finally disgust and anger.

"My son! I want to see my son!" Mikoto stood up and wailed, tears streaming down her face.

A nurse came in after hearing the commotion and tried to calm the woman down.

"Ma'am, please have a seat. Your son is going to be just fine. You'll be able to see him in a little bit." the nurse somewhat forcibly put Sasuke's mom in a chair.

The reassurance of her son's health did well to calm her down.

"W-what happened to him?" she asked.

"He had a broken jaw and eye socket, and multiple cuts and bruises to his face. He also was burned quite badly from being chakra punched. On the good side, we were able to fully repair the breaks and heal the cuts and burns." she explained.

"Are you Makito?" the nurse turned to Makito.

He gave her a thumbs up and grinned.

"We need you to fetch the hokage here. Tell him it's of potentially S-ranked importance and has to do with Seshiru." she said grimly.

"What would be so import-" he was cut off.

"Go. Get him immediately." she barked.

Makito nodded and dashed out the door in the direction of the hokage mansion. Sasuke's mom was also wondering what was so important to be even potentially categorized as S. She wondered if it had anything to do with her son. About fifteen minutes later, Makito was back with the hokage, who had a very grim look on his face.

"I need to know everything that happened at that fight." he said to Makito.

Makito ran through the story again, careful not to leave out any details.

"I see." he turned to the nurse. "Please explain to me the situation. I will put up a sound proof barrier."

He led them into an empty break room and shut the door after making sure it really was empty.

"We found a weird mark on her stomach and foreign chakra in her body. Based off of the reports of her having black eyes, we have reason to believe there is something sealed inside her, but we don't know what. It's definitely nowhere near strong enough to be a tailed beast, but we don't know what it is." She explained, glancing around furtively.

"I see…" he thought for a few moments, "What was the mark like?"

"It was just a small red circle." The nurse replied quickly.

"I'd like to see it. Now would be best, but if I-" he was cut off.

"Now is fine. I was just about to let her sensei go see her." She nodded, "Just go upstairs and all the way down the end of the hallway, door's on the left."

"Thanks." The hokage nodded and undid the sound barrier jutsu before heading upstairs and to the room the nurse told him about.

When he got inside, he lifted up her shirt just enough to reveal the mark. It was indeed a small red circle, like some kind of birth mark. The nurse was right; she certainly wasn't a Jinchuriki, but this strange seal/mark thing may be of concern. He heard footsteps approach and quickly put her shirt back down, not wanting to look like a pervert. Sasuke's family, the rest of which, his dad and Itachi, walked into the room along with Makito and the nurse. Just as they entered, Sasuke woke up. His mother hurried to his side and kneeled down to eye level.

"Are you ok?" she asked quietly.

"Yes Kaa-san." he said hoarsely.

"Oh you sound terrible." she frowned and stroked his hair. "I'm glad you're ok. I heard you were hurt pretty bad, by that... girl." she sneered when she said girl.

"I'm fine now." Sasuke mumbled.

He looked over to his dad and his brother. His dad was staring at him intensely and Itachi was staring through the window.

"What is it Tou-san?" he asked, wondering what his dad's stare was for.

"I'm disappointed in you." he said firmly. "For losing to that girl, who has probably never trained outside the academy. We raised you better than this." he scolded him with a look of distaste in his eyes.

Sasuke's face grew dejected.

"Sorry..." he mumbled.

"Why can't you be more like Itachi?" his father said, this time with distaste showing in his voice.

Sasuke looked even more depressed after that comment, but it set his mother off. Itachi sighed and pretended to ignore them.

"That was uncalled for! How could you say something like that to him? This is only his first year at the academy, and from what I've heard, that girl has no memory so it _is_ entirely possible she has trained before!" she went off on him, but hated to admit the last part.

"Mikoto, calm down." he said harshly before walking out of the room with his arms crossed.

"I'm sorry honey; he really is worried about you. He came home early from work just to see you." Mikoto returned to stroking Sasuke's hair and smiled warmly at him.

"Listen, I don't want you to hang around that girl anymore. It's for your own good." she lowered her voice and continued stroking his hair comfortingly.

"Kaa-san I'll be fine. It's not like she's a monster." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Sasuke, I don't want something like this to happen again. I don't think I could take it if you got hurt like this again." tears welled up in her eyes.

"I'm a ninja Kaa-san, you should get used to it." he sighed.

"When you give birth to your child and they end up half dead you'll understand," she half-frowned, "You'll understand when you're a parent and have kids of your own."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Why do moms always say stuff like that? At this point, Seshiru had been awake to hear the whole thing. She hadn't even bothered pretending to be asleep, but they hadn't noticed that she had woken up. Mikoto looked over at Seshiru, and saw that she was awake.

"Come on Itachi, we're leaving." Mikoto said quietly before briskly walking out the door.

Itachi stopped staring off into space and followed her at a more relaxed pace.

"I'm sorry about my mom acting like that," Sasuke sighed, "she's being all mom-ish again."

Seshiru was silent for a minute before sighing.

"You really love your family, don't you? What's it like to have a family?" she asked, a tone of curiosity in her voice.

"They love and care for you, but sometimes you fight. When you need help, they're usually there for you." he replied.

"Is it worth it? With the fighting and all?" she asked.

He didn't hesitate to respond, "Most certainly."

After that, they were both silent. At this point, Seshiru wasn't sure whether she wished she had a family or not. Maybe families weren't' for everyone, and she just happened to be one of the people who didn't need one.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey! So I know this is a day late, and something big did happen. Since in like, chapter one, I said unless there was something big going on, I would update on time. Well, I had an AP exam yesterday, so I was studying and crap for the past week. And now that that's over, more regular updates!

I would like to specially thank my regular reviewer: mg4of6! You're awesome for reviewing every update ^-^

And special thanks to my beta readers, who haven't beta read this yet, cus I'm just now writing this. But it will be beta'ed and I will replace this with the beta when it's done. The only reason I'm posting this now is because I feel bad for being a day late.

Oh yeah. And this is super short, which I also apologize for. I just wanted to get something out here so I wouldn't feel so bad. And so I can go play with my hetalia sims. Hehehe. Ah, I love the sims. If you have it, I suggest getting downloads and mods. Totally worth it.

And lastly, enjoy my story! I think the ending will make up for it being so short.

Yeah. I don't own Naruto. That'd be cool. Cus I'd have like lots of money.

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Chapter Five

Seshiru laid in her hospital bed alone as Sasuke had already been discharged, his wounds being less severe. She was still suffering from her extreme blood loss. She heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." she said, her voice sounding much better than a few days ago.

The door burst open and spawned forth a ball of orange energy, who proceeded to jump onto the unoccupied bed next to her.

"Hello Seshi!" Naruto said, smiling at her.

She didn't smile back.

"Aren't you scared of me?" she asked, looking away.

"What? Why the heck would I be scared of you?" he asked, completely shocked.

"You do know what I did right?" she looked away sullenly.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, getting genuinely concerned.

"Don't tell me you didn't you hear what happened?" she rolled her eyes.

He shook his head and his face adopted a confused expression.

"I apparently snapped and beat the crap out of Sasuke. I-I wouldn't stop punching him; I was like an animal." she said, doing her best to keep her cool.

"Why?" he asked.

"I don't know, I only remember seeing a guy with glasses and having strange flashbacks, and then lots of pain. I don't remember anything after that, except feeling an extreme sense of anger and rage, like some kind of white haze. Yeah, everything was white, I couldn't see. I heard some screams, but I wasn't in control." as she continued to talk about it, she remembered more and more.

"Then why is it so bad if you didn't do it on purpose?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

"I attacked my friend. I didn't have the control to stop myself. Thinking back, I didn't even feel bad doing it. It felt like nothing." she explained.

"He called you a monster didn't he?" he asked, leaning forward with anger showing in his eyes.

"No." she replied truthfully.

Naruto didn't seem to believe her.

"You don't need to stand up for him. You can tell me the truth." he said, trying to be serious, but the angry glint in his eyes was just too comical.

"Naruto, I'm telling you the truth." she said seriously, glancing at him before staring at the ceiling again.

She called him by his name. His real name. Naruto froze and found himself lightly blushing. He quickly brushed it off with his usual big grin. Luckily, Seshiru was still staring at the ceiling, not him.

"I don't think you're a monster." he said, getting serious again.

"You just broke a record. You got serious twice in one day." Seshiru said with a small laugh.

"What? I did?" he asked, surprised at himself.

"Yup, that's good, you're getting more mature." she complimented him, for once.

"Heheh. I guess so." he said, his face reddening again.

"You're blushing." Seshiru told him bluntly.

"Wahh? No I'm not!" he said, getting even redder as he pulled a defiant pout.

Seshiru snorted at his behavior. She turned back to the light, worried about what her classmates would have to say. She was sure they wouldn't be out of the loop since they had connections around town, while Naruto didn't really have family or friends.

*later that day*

Seshiru walked down the street and back to her apartment. She had just been discharged from the hospital. She knew Naruto was sneaking behind her, but she didn't let that off. As she neared her apartment complex, she took a kunai from her pouch so fast it would have been impossible to see and she threw it dangerously close to Naruto's head. There was a tearing sound as the kunai rent through a piece of paper patterned to look like wood, followed by a not-so-manly shriek as Naruto dropped the shredded paper.

"You really need to improve your stealth skills. Sneaking up on someone doesn't work if you are giggling the entire time." she stated, not bothering to stop or even look at him.

"Awwwww Seshi, you always ruin the fun." Naruto whined as he stepped out from behind a now torn impression of a wooden fence.

"It's not my fault you can't stop laughing." Seshiru remarked with a shrug.

"What do you know? You never laugh." he pouted, running to catch up with her.

"I laughed when we were in the hospital." she stated flatly, not bothering to slow down for him.

"Oh. Yeah." he replied, memories of his embarrassment flooding into his mind unbidden, causing him to nervously giggle.

When they got to the apartment building they parted ways, Naruto waving to Seshiru as they simultaneously headed into their respective apartments. Seshiru sat on her couch and sighed. Naruto boiled some water for his ramen. In the microwave of course. The stove in his apartment had been removed after one to many fire related injuries. Seshiru got up and walked to her fridge. She grabbed a pre-made turkey sandwich and a bottle of water, her usual lunch. Naruto waited the three minutes he hated so much for the water to cool down by pacing back and forth frantically, glancing at the timer every five seconds. Ramen. The food he practically lived off of. He finished quickly and wanted to get Seshiru back for finding him. Looking around his room for supplies, he noticed an air duct that could probably lead to Seshiru's room. Quietly as possible, he managed to force himself into the small shaft and army crawl along. As he approached the first vent, he knew it was Seshiru's. In fact, he could see her sitting at her table, eating her usual lunch of a turkey sandwich and water. Then, quickly as possible, plowed through the grate and fell onto the floor in Seshiru's apartment, sending a large cloud of dust and debris everywhere, even Seshiru's sandwich.

"I find the door to be more customary when entering someone's house." Seshiru said flatly, not a hint of surprise in her voice.

She looked at her sandwich, with a wince of disgust and put it back on the plate. It had flecks of grey and a none-to-appetizing dead fly now nestled into the air holes of the bread.

"I still didn't surprise you, huh?" he asked, sitting on the floor amidst thousands of dust motes and the grate.

"No. Now please return the vent to its place. And you can vacuum up that dust while you are at it."

"Vacuuming? But Seshi-" he stopped his protesting when a kunai appeared twirling on Seshiru's finger from nowhere.

"Now." she commanded.

Sighing, Naruto headed to the closet where Seshiru kept the vacuum. He knew where it was because he had been locked in there before, for sneaking into her house and trying to raid the fridge. More than once. He dragged the somewhat oversized vacuum into the dining room while Seshiru disposed of her sandwich and got a fresh one from the fridge. He vacuumed in what would have been silence had the vacuum not been droning loudly. Naruto vacuumed as fast as he could, but that resulted in Seshiru forcing him to do it again.

"Happy?" he pouted at her.

"That's the first time you've ever vacuumed something isn't it?" she smirked.

He paused for a moment and looked down in shame, "Yeah... So what?" he pouted again.

"Figured." she stood up, done with her sandwich.

"Whatever." he pouted for the umpteenth time that day.

"Stop pouting. Your face will stick like that." she walked into the kitchen, followed by Naruto who was dragging the vacuum with him.

"Oh really? Then why isn't your face stuck like that?" he stuck his tongue out defiantly.

"Because I don't have a facial expression." she shot back.

Naruto was prevented from responding when there was another knock on the door. Seshiru hoped it wasn't Sasuke, as she didn't want him and Naruto to begin fighting again. She cautiously opened the door and was surprised to see a familiar blue-haired guy standing there.

"Seshiru! I heard you were discharged and I came to see you!" Makito made his way into her house unbidden.

"Who's that?" Naruto asked, walking up as Makito set down a bunch of flowers on the table.

"He was my genin-sensei during the mission simulation." she replied.

"Wait! Why aren't you in bed, young lady!? You need to be resting! And who is this orange clad hooligan in your house!?" everything seemed to click inside his head.

Makito began to try and drag her to where he thought her bedroom might be.

"Let go of me or I'll scream child molester." Seshiru deadpanned.

Makito complied and dropped Seshiru on the floor.

"Why does everyone think I'm a freakin' child molester?" he through his hands in the air.

"You have no sense of personal space?" Seshiru shrugged.

"What? I do too have a sense of personal space!" he crossed his arms.

"You asked..." Seshiru sighed as she stood up.

"Whatever. You need to go to bed and REST young lady!" he tried to demand her again.

"No I don't. I recovered at the hospital. Did you really come to my house just to tell me to rest?" She rolled her eyes.

"Yes! How could you have such doubts about me like that!?" Makito started fake sobbing and broke into regular conversation at an unnatural rate, "I came to check up on you! Like a good sensei!"

"You know you aren't my sensei anymore right?" she deadpanned.

"Such indignance! From my own pupil!" he wailed and went back to fake crying.

"Do you do this to my other former teammates as well?" she emphasized 'former'.

"Of course!" he smiled.

"And are you aware that it's usually not possible for people your age to be a jounin by the time we graduate? Meaning that you won't be our sensei?" she virtually stared into his soul.

"Balderdash! I will make it my personal goal to become a jounin by the time you graduate and I will become your sensei!" he shot a fist in the air triumphantly.

"Did he really just say 'balderdash'? That's not something even old man Hokage would say!" Naruto doubled over in laughter.

"Shut up you indignant pigeon!" Makito raged at Naruto.

"And he called me a pigeon!" Naruto only laughed harder.

Seshiru shook her head and face palmed.

"Don't freak out when your plan doesn't work." she glared at him.

"Don't glare at me, my precious student!" Makito sank to the floor in sudden despair with a dramatically outstretched hand, while clutching his heart with the other.

"What is wrong with you?" Naruto asked while snorting in laughter.

"Nothing is wrong with the awesome Makito!" Makito leapt up and jabbed a finger at Naruto.

Makito and Naruto commenced in an argument about who was better than who, which inevitably resulted in Naruto giving his dream speech, which Makito shot down. Their argument only grew more heated. Seshiru decided it was best not to interfere and headed out onto her roof for some peace and quiet. She was only up there for about fifteen minutes before she heard something behind her. She whipped her head around, thinking she would see Naruto or Makito, but instead she saw a boy about her age with paper white skin and average looking jet black hair.

"Who are you?" she asked, subtly bristling with anxiety.

"I don't have a name." he replied.

He approached and Seshiru tensed up untrustingly. He was wearing clothes similar to what the Kakashi guy had worn when she saw him. He was just too suspicious for her liking. He put a hand in his pocket and she heard a clicking sound. Smoke surrounded them and she had no time to escape before everything went black.

* * *

Anyahahahaha! Big cliffe-y for everyone! In exchange for this being so hideously short. I really apologize for that. *sigh*. Next chapter will be longer. I swear. Watchin some Adventure Time and eating greek yogurt as I wrote this. Nyahaha I love greek yogurt ^-^. And I love writing out Makito. He's so dramatic and fun to write!

Now that you've spent a bunch of time reading this awesome or not so awesome story, you know what you have to do next? Do you? *silence*. You need to review. It takes like thirty seconds. And thirty seconds equals a day or more earlier update. It _really_ does. So do it. Even if you didn't particularly like this, at least tell me what I can do better so I can make the story more enjoyable, nyah. So review, or I'll buy copyrights over Naruto and make everyone turn into unicorns and love each other. Please don't make me do that T-T.


	6. Chapter 6

Nyah... This _is_ a day late and I am sorry -_-" But it's a super interesting good chapter that I enjoyed writing so I hope you still like and you aren't super made ^-^" Um, well, it isn't really beta'ed. Yet, just like last chapter, I will replace the it with the beta'ed version when it's done. So, I still thank my beta readers Hayashi Yuuki and blackcatgirl.

Disclaimer: Me no own Naruto. -_-

* * *

Seshiru woke up in darkness. Waves of pain shot through her head, disorienting her and making the room spin. She tried to use the wall to stand, but a wave of pain made the world turn on its side and she fell back to the floor. A loud clang and a tug on her ankles told her that she was chained to something, presumably the wall. Slowly regaining her senses, she blindly felt along the chain to see where it was attached. She recoiled her hand and fell back when something furry brushed against her/ Assuming it was just a rat, she continued feeling along the chain, but it was still there. She patted the soft fur, which turned out to be a head of ratty hair. Another person. She decided to leave the person alone in case they were hostile, but she still wanted to see her surroundings. It drove her nuts that there was no light. At least she could rely on hearing if someone were to attack. But if they turned the lights on, she would be painfully blinded. Probably the technique of her captors. She leaned against the wall, wondering if it was day or night. There was a strange humming sound, and not to her surprise, the room was flooded with fluorescent light. Pain shot through her eyes as they involuntarily clamped shut, futilely trying to block out the blinding light. She heard a loud clang of a door being slammed open and hasty footsteps entered the room. She tried to stand and fight, but something sharp pierced the skin on her arm, followed by searing pain as something was injected into her bloodstream. She wasn't sure if it was just the injection, or if the light was still getting to her, but her ears began to ring and she felt incredibly dizzy. She managed to open her eyes, but all she saw was white. The ringing intensified so much that it was all she could hear. It was like she was in another world. She would have called it blacking out, but there was only light. Her body felt so numb, she wondered if she had died or something. But that wouldn't make any sense. Why would someone capture her just to kill her? She opened her mouth to call out, but she realized her mouth was completely dry and she couldn't make any sound. The ringing seemed to shake through her body, engulfing her very consciousness. She struggled even to think straight; to form cohesive thoughts. Time seemed to stop, or maybe accelerate. At some point though, the light appeared to slowly dim. At least she thought so. She didn't know when, but the ringing stopped. Dim but familiar voices passed through her ears. Sometimes they were frantic; sometimes they were soft and soothing.

"Seshiru! Wake up!" Naruto whined, frowning at his unconscious friend.

A team of ANBU had been sent on a search for Seshiru. It was weeks before they had finally found her and been able to bring her back. Naruto had spent those weeks in a constant state of worry over his only friend. He forced himself not to think she was dead, and even considered going after her himself. But old man hokage had anticipated this idea, and there always seemed to be someone following him, just visible enough for him to know. And now that she was finally back, she had been in a coma for a week. The doctors wouldn't disclose what was wrong with her, so crazy idea after crazy idea flew through his head. He furrowed his brow and leaned forward in his chair, placing his sleep-heavy head in his hands.

Seshiru thought she heard Naruto's voice, but it echoed through her mind, seeming to border on reality and dream. She flinched when she felt a poking sensation on her face. Her hand shot up to swat the offending force away.

"Ow! Seshi! Wait- ARE YOU AWAKE!? SESHI!" someone screamed in her ear, followed by the feeling of being crushed as someone embraced her in a hug.

She tried to blink her eyes open, but everything remained black.

"Geroff..." she moaned hoarsely.

"You're awake!" she was only crushed tighter.

"I'll pass out again if you keep restricting my lungs." she managed to cough out.

The weight left her body, allowing her to sit up properly. She blinked again, trying to see.

"Why is it dark in here?" she asked, glancing around.

"What are you talking about? The lights are on and it's sunny out." Naruto cocked his head to the side.

"It's not funny. I can't see anything." Seshiru snapped.

"I'm not joking. The lights really are on." Naruto persisted.

"Go get someone who can tell me the truth." she flopped back onto her pillow.

"But Seshi, I am!" Seshiru could hear him lean forward as if to stand up.

'I just woke up from a coma and this is how he greets me?' Seshiru rolled her eyes, 'then again, this _is_ Naruto.' she sighed.

"Go turn the lights on." she commanded.

"How can I turn them on if they already are on?" Naruto sounded almost angry now.

"I don't know. Being on in your head doesn't count." she glared in what she thought was his general direction.

"Seshi... Are you?... Are you blind?" Naruto calmed down and asked with a tone of genuine concern.

"Blind? Blind!? How could I be blind?" she sputtered, in utter shock at the notion.

"I- I don't know! The doctors wouldn't tell me what was wrong with you!" Naruto asked, tears welling in his eyes for some reason.

Seshiru's hands shot up to her eyes, gently patting them and fingering her eyelids. Tears sprang into her eyes and began rolling down her face.

"No! No, this can't be happening!" she cried, sitting up again and leaning forward to hide her face in her hands.

Naruto remained silent, not knowing what to say in a situation like this. Seshiru spent a few minutes trying to rub the blindness out of her eyes, but to no avail. She was reduced to sobbing quietly, trying to take in her new condition. Naruto awkwardly rubbed her back, doing his best to comfort her. For once he remained silent. It wasn't that he didn't want to say something, he was just at a loss for words. He was incredibly surprised when she sat up enough to hug him. Now he really didn't know what to do. He felt his face redden and his arm move robotically across her back, as the rest of his body had frozen up. Almost immediately his sleeve was soaked with tears, but he didn't care. After she cried herself out, she pulled back sharply, as if only then realizing she had hugged him.

"Not a word of this to anyone or I swear I'll kill you." she hissed, somehow managing to look directly at him.

"It's going to be pretty hard to hide the fact that you're blind..." Naruto scratched the back of his head.

"No, that I cried and you held me," she frowned, "I don't want to look weak. But thanks... For comforting me."

Naruto's face reddened again and he was almost glad she couldn't see him.

"You're blushing right now aren't you." she deadpanned, still staring directly at him.

"W-What!?" Naruto cried, shocked that she could still seem to sense things you would normally only be able to see, "Of course not! How would you know? You're not _pretending_to be blind are you?"

Seshiru rolled her eyes, "Yeah. I pretended to cry like an infant for about thirty minutes as a joke. Was it funny?"

"Eheheh. Sure..." Naruto sweat dropped.

Seshiru sighed and laid back down on her pillow, in a rather uncomfortable seeming stalk-straight position, like a corpse. She remained silent, the grim events of the day hanging over her mind like a permanent black cloud.

"I will try to conceal it though. I must continue to be a ninja. I will not be weak. I will find who did this to me, and I will make them pay," she ground out every word, "But I will need your help, at least for a while."

Naruto's face lit up. For once _he_ would be the one helping her!

"How will you intend to keep it a secret?" he wondered.

"I can use my other senses. They do say that if you loose one sense, your others become stronger to make up for it. I will use that to my advantage." she 'stared' intently at the wall.

More like into space.

- two weeks later -

It had been a week after Seshiru had been discharged to the hospital, and she had spent another week at her house recuperating with Naruto's help. She had evaded the eye tests by having Naruto, by something short of a miracle, memorize the letters and tell them to her. Maybe he had written them down on a paper or something. After she had gone home, she spent all her time practicing to get her kunai throwing skills back on par with what they were before. Now she had to trust her senses, since she couldn't hear a piece of wood in front of her. If she concentrated hard enough, she could almost feel the target. By the end of the week, through much effort, her skills were almost the same as before. They were at least at a believable level for someone who had been out of training for many weeks. She had also been working on trying not to get a listless gaze that many blind people developed when they didn't really have anything to focus on. Occasionally when she was taking a break, thoughts about her random attack on Sasuke crossed her mind, but she shoved them out of the way in favor of regaining her skills. She didn't have time to sort stuff like that out in her head. She paced throughout her house on memory alone, anticipating morning. She had also bought a watch that vibrated at every hour so as not to make an annoying noise, but let her know what time it was. She already had her bag packed and ready to go, and all she was waiting for was the next vibration of her watch that would tell her it was time to take a soldier pill and go get Naruto up. She jumped when it silently buzzed and rushed to the kitchen to take her pill, before grabbing her bag with great haste and bursting out the door. She walked swiftly but silently down the hall in 23 precisely counted out steps until she reached Naruto's door, which she picked as quickly as possible. When she entered the room, she was greeted with the lovely smell of dirt and ramen, instantly letting her know she was in the right place. She walked to his room, her hand lightly brushing against the wall so she wouldn't stray from her path.

"Wake up." she kicked his bedroom door loud enough to wake him.

"Uwah!" she heard the usual loud scream followed by a thump as Naruto jumped out of bed, "You need to stop picking my damn locks Seshi!"

"You need to stop cussing. It doesn't sound normal coming out of an eight year old's mouth." she chided his language.

"Whatever." he grumbled.

She could here him stumbling and tripping as he scrambled to clothe himself in his typical horrid, day-glo orange jumpsuit. She flinched as he burst through the door and sprinted to the kitchen to get himself some cereal and curdled milk.

"Your milk is curdled." Seshiru observed.

"How do you know?" he asked, pouting at her.

"I can smell it from here." she turned up her nose in disgust.

"Stupid unnatural senses." he mumbled under his breath.

"I heard that." she glared at him.

"Hearing too." he didn't bother to try and be unheard.

Her other senses were already showing signs of being more sharp. She was almost somewhat excited to see just how much more they would improve. Naruto threw out his milk and ate the cereal dry in less than five minutes for once, and after that, they were off. As he dashed between buildings, and even through a few, Seshiru followed Naruto as best as she could, managing not to run into something head on. That's not to say she didn't clip anything a few times, earning her a bruise or two from harder items like light poles. They arrived to class on time and Seshiru took her seat, luckily without any visible difficulty to her fellow classmates. Minus Sasuke.

"Are you ok? You look a little dazed." Sasuke commented.

"I'm fine." she replied without turning around.

Sasuke backed off, at least for then. But Seshiru had her doubts that his suspicion was quelled. If he noticed just the way she walked into the class was slightly off, surely he'd notice her decline of skills. She heard somewhat heavier footsteps and knew they belonged to Iruka.

"Hello class! And welcome back, Seshiru!" he announced just as her watch vibrated, telling her it was 7:00.

She was unimpressed by his welcoming, but nonetheless managed a small smile back at him. As usual, she drowned out his boring lectures and pretended to stare out the window, wishing she could still see. She could hear Naruto scribbling away at something next to her, which began to drive her nuts. She turned to face him reached out to take his pencil. She missed at first, and could only hope that Sasuke, or anyone else for that matter, hadn't noticed.

"Stop scribbling. It's distracting." she wrote him a quick, discrete note and slid it over to him.

"You're writing sucks." Naruto whispered loudly.

Another thing she'd have to practice then. She glared at him as if to say 'not the point'. He seemed to get it as he took his pencil back, but didn't continue to scribble. When Iruka called for lunch, Seshiru followed behind the class as usual, but now because she had to. Unless she wanted to run into a wall. She managed to make her way to her usual tree based off of memory, and a bit of fumbling. As she sat down and began to unpack her usual, she heard casual, yet careful footsteps approach. She could only assume it was Sasuke.

"Hello Sasuke." she looked up at him.

"What's wrong." he demanded, sitting next to her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she said casually, taking a bite out of her sandwich.

"Yes you do. You have this listless look about you, you keep running into things, and your handwriting skills have seriously deteriorated." he went on.

"Nothing is wrong with me." she denied with a straight face.

"I'll report you to Iruka." Sasuke threatened.

"Report what to him?" she glanced at him.

"That either you're blind or your eyesight has seriously declined." he clarified.

Seshiru didn't reply for a few minutes, until after she had washed her sandwich down with a couple swigs of water.

"You can't tell anyone." she hissed at him.

"Tell anyone what?" she could almost feel him raise an eyebrow.

"Don't play these games with me. That I can't see." she looked away.

"How bad is it?" she could hear him open up a bento box.

"I can't see at all. If you tell anyone, I swear I'll-" she threatened, but he stopped her.

"I have no reason to tell, but you'll have to be even more careful then you are now. It's only a matter of time before you're found out." he warned.

"Thanks..." she said after a long silence.

"I assume Naruto knows?" Sasuke questioned.

She could hear him lean back onto the tree and relax.

"Yes. He was there when I woke up." she did likewise.

"What happened to you when you were kidnapped?" he wondered.

"I don't know. I just remember waking up in darkness. There was someone else with me, but they were unconscious. Then a really bright light flooded the room and they injected something into me. Everything was ringing and I felt unconscious again, but everything was white. It eventually went black again, but it's been that way since." she explained quietly, not wanting anyone else to overhear.

"S-sorry." he managed to say awkwardly, as if testing the word on his tongue for the first time.

"S'okay." she shrugged.

After that they remained relatively silent, until Naruto bounded up after finishing his lunch. Seshiru could practically feel the discontent radiating off of him and the invisible sparks that flew from his eyes as they met Sasuke's.

"If you guys start fighting, I swear." she threatened as she felt the same animosity radiate from Sasuke.

She heard Naruto sigh in an immature fashion, and could only imagine the pout that probably occupied his face at the moment. Sasuke probably had an equally immature expression on his, but centered more around distaste rather than defiance. Awkward silence infiltrated the peaceful summer day like an elephant in Antarctica. They were saved when Iruka called them back inside for class, only to say it was really nice Out so they would have the rest of class outside. Seshiru managed to follow everyone out to the outdoor classroom, a small clearing in a lightly wooded forest. They had to do a worksheet, which Naruto had to move her hands to the right places to write. She tried to pretend her face didn't redden at all as he helped her.

"Who's blushing now, Seshi?" Naruto remarked.

"It's hot outside. My cheeks are simply flushed; I'm not blushing." she explaised in a monotone voice.

Naruto only snickered and continued to neglect his work to help Seshiru.

"Consider this to be stealth training." Seshiru grumbled as Naruto moved her hand to the next answer space again.

She really just hated feeling weak. She wrote slowly but surely, trying to make her writing as neat as possible. Naruto laughed again at her comment.

"Laughing is not stealthy." she snapped, glaring at him.

"Whatever." he sighed, moving her hand again.

Thankfully she finished the worksheet without being found out by Iruka or any of her fellow classmates. Or at least nobody said anything to her face. But she couldn't help but feel paranoid. Anyone would. One false move; one glance, and she could be taken out of the Academy forever. There was no way she'd let that happen. Soon enough class ended and they were allowed to go home. She followed Naruto as usual, hoping that one day she'd be able to do this on her own.

* * *

Well, I hope you enjoyed this ^-^. If you did then you can review and tell me! Or if you didn't like it so much then you can offer me some constructive criticism. This is so much more fun to write now that the plot is picking up, so keep following this story because their is more action to come!

Now please go review ^-^. You know, it's funny. When I first started reading stuff on this site, I would sometimes get annoyed at how some authors practically harassed you to review and it annoyed me so much, but then I read something where someone said that if a story didn't have a certain amount of reviews, they wouldn't even read it. If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't even care. So if you liked this, then review because more people will be inclined to read it, nyah! So it really is helpful, plus I can get an idea if I'm doing good with the story.

Well, I'll post the next chapter in a week, and earlier if I get reviews. Note the plural.

-Marcy out ^-^-


	7. Ooops

Pbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbppbpbppbpbpbpbbpptttttttttt...

I guess all I can say for the delay is sorry, I got busy, and had a bought of writer's block. Yes, there could have been times when I could have tried to update, or at least say 'on hiatus', but I honestly didn't think that I would have taken this long. I'm apprehensive about putting this up even, because I'm sure everyone's pissed off at my stupidity/laziness. *dodges sharp projectiles*, and disappointed that this isn't an actual chapter if you were looking forward to that.

Though, there is good news. I have a decent idea with what I want to do now, so I'm going to try and get this story going again. I don't like to make excuses, but I would like to explain myself as to why I got writer's block. I had this story planned out to like, chapter 20, but I realized that if the plot went in that direction, Seshiru would be like, a super Mary-Sue. I realize she is already kinda borderline Sue-ish, and that's why I made her blind. Expect some good fails from her in the future. But basically, the plot underwent a major overhaul, and is now completely different, rendering chapters 7-20 for the most part, useless. I must say though, remember how it says 'AU' in the description? Well, after chapter six is when the plot really diverges from the canon. Remember that. And, special thanks to my beta Hayashi Yuuki for helping me with my new plot plan!

Now, if you're still reading this and not trying to hunt me down and kill me, here is my plan for updating. I'm quite busy with my classes currently, but I will try my best to get this done nonetheless, using time when I don't have homework and such. Also, don't expect me to update right away. What I have planned for the plot is going to be quite difficult to write and will take a lot of work on my part to make sure it's perfect and worthy of being posted. Hehehe but I can say, this is going to go in a direction no one is expecting. There hasn't been a ton of plot-y stuff yet, but it's going to slap you in the face for the next few chapters. In a good way. Hopefully.

And FYI, I will never, never, never discontinue this fanfic.


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